Alice's Ocean
by KCcrazy
Summary: Dear Diary, There's a girl my age in art class named Isabella-she prefers Bella from what I've heard. She's seems like a nice person, and I'd like to become her friend. Love, Alice. "I want you to have this. Now that she's dead...it just seems right."


**Yeah -- I'm crazy for starting another story when I have two others to update. But I really wanted to get this out! Stupid plot bunny as been jumping around in my head all day -- all month, technically -- and if I didn't get it out sooner it would probably just smash my skull into pieces. The evil bunny will finally have world domination . . . . (Beautiful mental image, right?)**

**Please note that this story is very loosely based off Kevin Henkes' "Olive's Ocean." I thank him for the title name, and any other familiar references. The rest is my original work.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own **_Twilight_.

**_This story is dedicated to _Daddy's Little Cannibal_, who inspired me to write this story -- and to write for myself, not others._**

**Full Summary: **Dear Diary, There's a girl my age in art class I've been dying to talk to named Isabella - but she prefers Bella from what I've heard. She's seems like a nice person, and I'd like to become her friend. That is my biggest goal for the year. Love, Alice. "I want you to have this. Now that shes dead...it just seems right."

Alice's Ocean

_By: KCcrazy_

_Dear Diary,_

_My family and I just moved here from Biloxi, Mississippi, my hometown. I absolutely  
love Mississippi; it's beautiful during the summer, and just amazing during the winter.  
Forks is a pretty nice town, not to different from Biloxi with its small population, besides  
the fact that it's constantly raining here. The classes are pretty much the same, and the  
girls are just as mean -- and they are some points when they seem even worse than usual._

_There's a girl my age in art class I've been dying to talk to. Her name is Isabella Swan -- but  
prefers Bella from what I've heard. She's the nicest girl in my class. I'd like to get to know her;  
she seems like a great friend and I would love to talk with her and have fun. I don't have many  
friends; it's hard moving to a new town across the continent in the middle of the year._

_Bella paints the most amazing pictures in art class. A majority of them are of the ocean or beach,  
places I've been dying to go to since I was little. Maybe I'll go there someday. I've lived near their  
almost my whole life; and here the beach is only a few miles away from Forks. But for now, that dream  
is out of reach. Right now, I just want to focus on befriending Bella. That's my biggest goal for the year._

_Love, Alice_

* * *

Chapter One

It was a humid summer day in the middle of August, the peak of the school starting to arrive. The clouds painted a boring grey color over the town, instantly causing it to be one of those "hot and lazy inside days" the people of Forks received only once or twice a year. A gardener wiped the sweat from his forehead and let the hose spray cool water on his wrinkled face, keeping an eye out for the owners. A woman carried a crying baby down the uneven sidewalk across the street and climbed up the porch steps to her house. The neighbor's cat was curled up into a small ball underneath a shady evergreen, its eyes darting around every few seconds.

It was these things Bella Swan was watching as her pen sketched quickly against the yellowed and crinkled computer paper. A stubby, two inch piece of wood was all that was left of the overused pencil, a nearly invisible eraser at the top and tiny bite marks littering the sides. The worn paper crinkled underneath her touch, having been drawn on and erased on so many times it wouldn't be unlikely if it turned to dust after another day or two.

Bella's mother and father, Charlie and Renee Swan, stood bickering loudly out in the hallway just a few feet away from her room, something that had quickly become common over the last few months. At first they were simple, almost playful arguments, such as who left the cap of the toothpaste off or who forgot to take out the trash on garbage day. Then, as the months slowly began to progress, the light and fluffy arguments soon became all out fights, using harsh language and occasionally coming close to physical harm.

Bella flinched away from the sound of her soon to be divorced parents' harsh words. She rested her head against the glass window, her notebooks and sketchpads resting on the leather seat beside her. Her chocolate brown eyes wandered as the first drops of rain fell softly against her window, creating moisture from the hot, summer weather. They descended slowly to the flower box a few inches below, wetting the nearly dead flowers and weeds her mother had worked for hours on end to plant. The plants were dying -- just like her mother and father's relationship.

Bella got up off the window seat and walked over to phone, planning on calling her friend, Angela. Angela was a shy girl a few months older than Bella, who had also been expiriencing some parental issues lately. She was the girl Bella could always go to for advice or help when Charlie and Renee's fights were especially bad, and vice versa. Knowing each other for over a decade generally helped with the friendship.

"They're fighting again?"

Bella smiled slightly, walking back to the window seat and watching as the rain fell down to the ground. It was a comfort that Angela immediately knew what was going on, without even hearing her voice. "Yeah. It's a stupid fight, this time. Not like the last one they had when Dad forgot to pay the bill and refused to due it with his money. Right now it sounds like they're fighting about not getting enough groceries."

Angela was silent for a moment; Bella could almost imagine her biting her lip and rolling her eyes. "At least this means they'll be in a better mood later. You know how stupid fights like that always lead to them making up and falling in love again." Angela's voice was almost timid, as is she was nervous about talking with her best friend on a touchy subject. "Just be happy they're still alive." Angela's voice had cracked slightly at the end, and Bella immediately felt the need to fill up the silence. Angela's parents had passed away when she was very young, and she had spent two years of her life in an old run down orphanage, but was currently living with a rich family.

"We're going away for the rest of the summer -- we're visiting Mom's old house in Florida." Bella and her family had travelled to Florida every year since she was two, and it had become it family tradition after a few short visits. Bella was especially happy about the fact that even when her parents were fighting, they stilled loved each other enough to make their yearly trip to Florida.

Angela giggled quietly. "Are you going to talk to those b--"

"Shut up, Ang!" Bella interrupted. "You know I didn't like any of them!"

"That's not what you told me last--" The doorbell rang at that moment and an unfamiliar voice came over the intercom. Bella looked out the window of her bedroom, and was surprised to see an older woman, maybe in her late forties, which jet black hair and a spiral notebook in her hands. She looked slightly familiar, like an older version of someone she used to know. Angela's voice came over the phone quietly, quickly breaking Bella out of her reverie.

Her mother screaming, "Bella, get the door!" was simply an added effect.

"Sorry, Ang. I have to go. I'll call you back later." Angela huffed quietly, before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone. Bella ran out of her room, past her still bickering and now livid parents, and to the door, just as another _ring _sounded loudly throughout the house. The black haired woman looked bewildered for a moment at Bella's sudden arrival, but quickly brushed it away and with a saddened look passed Bella the notebook.

"My name is Kathleen Brandon. My daughter was Alice Brandon." The sentences were plain and simple, and it was almost impossible to miss out on the use of the word _was_. Bella gasped at the name, suddenly reminded of the car accident that had taken place earlier this summer. One life had been lost in it -- Alice Brandon, who had been in several Bella's classes. "You're Isabella Swan, right?"

Bella nodded, opening the spiral notebook. It was filled with journal entries, short stories, pictures, photographs, and several other personal items. She looked up at the woman, curious as t why she would give such a personal item to that was once her now dead daughter's to a total and complete stranger. Forks was a small enough town, but with the increasing population, not everyone was completely familiar with everyone else.

"You don't know me, but . . . Alice wrote about you in some of here journal entries. I don't know how well you knew her, or how well she knew you. She was always so shy; never really had that many friends when we moved here." This was one of the few things about Alice that Bella remembered clearly. She wasn't made fun of, because a majority of the time people didn't even know she was there.

Mrs. Brandon looked away for a moment beofre continuing. "It would . . . I want you to have this. _She _would want you to have this." Mrs. Brandon pointed at the worn diary in Bella's hands. She had tears in her eyes, her voice cracking at almost every word she spoke. She was sniffling every few seconds, short gasps coming along with them. "Now that's she's dead . . . it just seems right."

**So . . . what'd you think? Great? Awful? Spectacular? Keyboard vomit? Tell me what you thought! Constructive criticism appreciated. (If you're going to say that I shouldn't have killed off Alice, to bad -- because this was based on two true stories, and loosely based off two other books. I didn't like killing her, though; :( she just seemed to fit.)**

**And the chapters are going to be much longer; this was just a preface of what I wanted to happen. Thanks for reading!**

**Reviews = Ice Cream**


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